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Dr. Thomas E. Murray

Jennifer Lung

October 15, 2007
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm

I was once again in the fourth grade class. As soon as I walked in the door all the students were so excited to see me. They were all begging for my attention and I felt important. I felt as if I was really beginning to be welcome in the class and the students were starting to like me. I also know now that I have a greater burden on my shoulders. Now, it will be even more important for me to care for these children and help them the best I can. These students were going to now be depending on me to come in week after week and give them everything I have. I am ready and willing to rise to the challenge.

Today the teacher asked me to work with an intensive reading group. I worked with three students. We sat and read a text book, chapter after chapter. It was incredibly boring and I honestly don't see how this was helping. How could reading a text book help a child learn to read better? I am concerned for these students and their ability to succeed in school. It was difficult for the students to stay focused and I can understand why, it was boring. And that was it. I sat there for an hour and a half while the students read to me.

October 22, 2007
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm

I am starting to catch on to what's happening. At the times I am in the class is when the students are reading. So, today I went in the class and the students were reading and doing workbooks. Also, there was a substitute in the room because the teacher was in a meeting. Yay! I just walked around and helped the students that needed it. I was shocked at what one student asked me. He said, "Do cat tails grow?" I told him I didn't know. He then read the sentence to me. I realized what was going on! The story was talking about marshes and it was referring to the plant cattails. I never really realized how much students do need background knowledge to understand stories. This interested me and I have been thinking about what the child thought the whole time.

The substitute insisted the students remain in their seats and make no noise. She would not allow them to do many things their teacher allows. She told them it was because she wasn't used to it. I then thought about the children. They are not used to all of your rules. So, who is right here, the students or the sub? They both have the same exact defense! One student in the class was continually talking. She looked at him and said, "you're disappointing me." He just stared blankly back at her. I wondered if he really cared. She wasn't anyone important to him, he hardly knew her. Why would he care if he disappointed her? I now wonder if her tactics were successful. The class was quiet for the most part but what did she accomplish? A quiet, bored class that probably didn't learn anything.

Service Learning Reflection--Rebecca Guess

I've been out of the classroom for a couple of weeks due to a bad case of strep throat but last week I ventured back into the classroom. It was interesting because there is an autistic boy in the classroom. I understand the whole movement to incorporate handicapped students into a regular classroom but I can't understand this. He's autistic and isn't capable of anything that the other students can do. It may sound mean or cruel but he shouldn't be in the classroom with other students. He runs the length of the classroom screaming and yelling. That's not fair to the students that are trying to get their work done.
He does have an aide but she's at a complete lost as of what to do. He cannot complete the work with the other students and he's always given some alternate assignment to complete. An example, the day I was there they had folded up pieces of newspaper and he was attempting to cut them into strips so that they could be coated in paper-mache and made into a mask. The other students had completed this assignment almost a month ago. The autistic student won't even start, it's something that the teacher knows and so does his aide. Don't get me wrong, he's very nice and I don't mind him in the classroom but I can't help but feel bad for the students that are trying to get their work done. The times when he runs up and down the class they have to jump out of his way because he will run them over, he doesn't bother to navigate through the students.
I really love going to this class and the teacher I have was actually my teacher eight years ago. He's asked me to bring in my old portfolio so I can help with his advanced students and show them my work. I will also be helping him this week at the Arts festival.
I know the autistic student will be there and he'll be doing what he always does, which I'm used to by now but I can't help but wonder, who is it really hurting and helping by him being in the classroom?

Brandy Barnett

Service Date and Time: October 19, 2007 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
I stayed the whole day today but, I am only going to count three of the hours towards this service project. I wanted to see what an entire day was like versus just “popcorning” in for the same two hours each week on Fridays. Same routine: spelling test, and library. This is what I normally witness on my visits. After the library I usually leave. Today became much more interesting.
Today took on a new approach. The teacher told me that she did not have any work for me to do with the students specifically and that she wanted me to be able to observe the classroom. I thought that was a great idea. Today she said would be a little less instructional because the children would be having a fire drill, library time, a visit to see a fire truck, computer lab, and music special. So today was filled with a lot of transitions. I really enjoyed watching her morning routine. Normally I am working with one or two children so I miss what the class is doing at the time. In the morning she has them sitting in the front of the classroom in a large group. She goes over what the day it is, what day it was yesterday, a student checks the weather outside, and another student tells what shape comes next in the pattern on the calendar. They go over descriptive words, frequency words, money, phonics, and sing a song. All this is done in a time span of 15-20 minutes daily. It is very interactive. She calls on students for each of the activities. A boy has a turn then has to choose a girl, and vise versa. She explained that if that rule wasn’t in place the other gender wouldn’t get a turn. One of the children kept misbehaving during group time and he had to go back to his seat. I felt bad for him. He was moved after he had already put his name under the “sad face” on the board. She read to them a class book that she had bound for them of a previous activity that they had done. It was a worksheet displaying each child’s pumpkin face they had created. The kids lit up when they saw the book. They love to view themselves as authors and illustrators. The class has made five books so far. I noticed during the course of the day that during independent time she played music on a cd player and the kids would sing along. I observed that she gave out 3 worksheets today. One was on vowel sounds, one on what is safe and not safe to play with (in correlation to fire safety), and one about math. If today was so busy with transitions I wonder how many she normally gives out. One of my favorite times of the day was when we came back from the library and I read to them “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus”. They absolutely loved that book. Of course they all participated. It is a great read aloud. I had learned about it from Gina’s author presentation. (Thanks Gina). It had went so well that they were all begging me to read aloud their library books that they had just checked out. Secretly I wished that I could have. I love reading books to the kids. My second favorite part of the day was when the teacher and I went to go pick up the students from music class. The music teacher had four students singing karaoke and the other students were dancing. The teacher and I observed for awhile. The kids were just having so much fun, laughing and dancing. How I wish their whole day could be that much fun. During the second song four more students volunteered to sing while others dance. It was in that moment that I remembered what the author Mem Fox said, “Teachers need to let their students see them as human too with real feelings and real emotions”. I disregarded all inhibitions I had of looking stupid and silly and got out their and danced with the kids. I didn’t care what my service learning teacher or the music teacher thought, well maybe I did a little. But the look of surprise and excitement on those kids face was simply priceless. Some may say that it’s dangerous to cross that line, “be like them and you’ll lose your authority”. Maybe I will… or maybe they will respect me more because I take the time to enjoy what they enjoy, share in their laughter. I truly believe that you don’t always have to be in front to lead a child. I think you can also lead sometimes just walking with them side by side.

Jennifer Sonneberger

Today (October 19), I went to Mrs. Mullins third grade class once again. I was surprised to find Mrs. Mullins absent, and a substitute there in her place. What a difference. From the moment I walked it, it was total confusion. This women had no control over these kids. They all got up when I walked it, and hugged me. They all had ants in their pants. No one could sit still. She never punished one person, so the consistency Mrs. Mullins has in her class went out the window. When it was time to line up, the kids were awful, talking and messing around. When I left, I felt bad for the substitute, because at least I know the kids names.
I then proceeded to Mrs. Christophers Kindergarten class. They all listened quietly while I read to them. She is really great. I hear her using positive reinforcement all the time. If one child cannot sit still, she will point out the child with the correct behavior, instead of singling out the child with bad behavior. It really works. The child not behaving usually comes back into line when she does this. It is amazing how much you can do by saying so little.

Jennifer Sonneberger

When I went to Mrs. Mullins class on Friday October 12, I was intending to stay until lunch. When I got there, she put me with the same kids she has me work with every week. It seems I have what would be considered the "slower" kids, though one child is not slow. He is very smart, and sweet, but he has a really bad speech impediment, and it is very hard to understand him. I think that is why is is grouped that way. He really struggles with reading, especially when we are looking for constant blend sounds, because he cannot really hear them, because of his speech impediment. He is in speech therapy. It just shows you how teachers make judgements about kids before they really know them. I had to leave early, because my son did not feel well, so my visit was cut short.

Service Learning Hours 4467 - Rachel Gray

To complete my 15 hours of service learning I am reflecting on the time I spend monitoring study hall. I do occasionally get to help the students with their work. I do this 3 days a week for 4 to 5 periods a day. The school I am at has a mix of students from different socio-economic backgrounds. The majority I would say come from the higher end. There are a few of ELL students in every class. The students range in age from 13-15 years of age.

My first encounter was interesting because they were trying to feel me out as students do. They tried to be very creative and in sense won that round. Over time most have warmed up to me. There is one particular student that acted like she didn't like me. She was a bit defiant when I gave directions. (She was quietly defiant.) Now recently, students have told her they think we are related, so now she has an interest in me. She listens better and each day asks another question about me. My last class with her she acted like she wanted to ask a question but another student pulled her away before she got a chance. It's interesting how she now feels a connection to me after fellow classmates pointed it out. I relate to her more than she realizes.

Even more interesting is the fact that there are other students that look like this particular student but she can't seem to relate to them at all from what I have observed. I'm not sure if it is related to their English speaking abilities. They speak English but have problems from time to time. I also notice most of the female students stray from these particular students, who are also female. They seem very nice, yet they seem to stay in their own group also. I'm sure it's a comfort zone, but I also think it's because the other students don't let them in. The English speaking females are more accepting to the male ELL students then to the female ELL students. I can't figure out why. Maybe it has to do with the age. This will be one that I watch.

One of my favorite classes comes at the end of the day. I have an interesting dynamic going on. There is a group of students that if just one of them is missing, shut down. If all of them are there, they all become challenges. They are the ones that try to charm the teacher with comments at the same time basically not listening. Overall, they are a good group but like to buck the system when possible.

Overall, the students seem to blend well. It is the typical school where there are the real popular students, the studious students, and the ones that everyone likes to pick on.

Sinya Wallace

I was also able to do volunteer hours at Avalon Park Middle School. At Avalon Park Middle School, I followed an ESOL paraprofessional around. I was able to see all the different grade levels as well as all the different courses of study. I especially loved the history classes. In one of the 8th grade history classes, I observed the class putting on a play about the Mayflower Compact. It was very interesting to see the students make the costumes and act out the different parts of the play. I enjoyed helping them and seeing the different personalities that they have at that grade level. Each teacher had their different ways of responding to the students and I learned that reaching out to the students and showing interest in their learning will help me be an effective teacher.

Sinya Wallace

I had the chance to visit with a kindergarten and a third grade class. In the kindergarten class it was kind of crazy. The students wanted to play more than they wanted to learn. Kindergarten is the grade where students learn all their basic steps and gain that first experience of what school is like. In the third grade class, it seemed like it was faster paced than the kindergarten class. Students are more aware of what is expected of them and follow procedures in a different way. While I was helping in this third grade class, there was one student who really stuck out to me. At first, I was amazed at how he was always right on top of everything and how he always wanted to help. Then during writing time, I noticed that he wasn’t doing his work. The teacher then told me that he did not know how to write words into sentences. I could not understand how a student could be in the third grade and not know how to write words into sentences. This really amazed me; the student was smart enough to write but just did not know how. Seeing this third grade class and that student just made me want to teach even more

Tangelo Park Elementary

I had the chance to visit with a kindergarten and a third grade class. In the kindergarten class it was kind of crazy. The students wanted to play more than they wanted to learn. Kindergarten is the grade where students learn all their basic steps and gain that first experience of what school is like. In the third grade class, it seemed like it was faster paced than the kindergarten class. Students are more aware of what is expected of them and follow procedures in a different way. While I was helping in this third grade class, there was one student who really stuck out to me. At first, I was amazed at how he was always right on top of everything and how he always wanted to help. Then during writing time, I noticed that he wasn’t doing his work. The teacher then told me that he did not know how to write words into sentences. I could not understand how a student could be in the third grade and not know how to write words into sentences. This really amazed me; the student was smart enough to write but just did not know how. Seeing this third grade class and that student just made me want to teach even more.

Wynee Wang

Date: 10/10/07

Where: Debary Elementary School

Time: 8:00 AM - 1:20 PM

Grade: Second Grade

Teacher: Mr. Roeshink



Since I live in Volusia County, and definitely know that I will be a teacher in this county, I decided to finish my service-learning hours in Debary Elementary. Every single school in Volusia County have wednesdays as early-release day, meaning that students get out one hour earlier than regular days. The county believes that by having early-release days, it will give teachers a break during the middle of the week. Well, thank goodness that I live here! I wanted to see how an early-release day felt like, so I emailed Mr. Roeshink and told him I was going to his classroom on Wednesday. I was very excited to be placed with a male elementary teacher. To be honest, I have NEVER observed a male elementary teacher before, so I was eager to see the difference between a male and female teacher.



As soon as I walked to Mr. Roeshink's door, he swung open the door and greeted me with a huge smile. When I walked in, I noticed that the children weren't there. "I just dropped the kids off at P.E., they start specials at 8AM." Wow, I was shocked by this, because isn't that a little early for specials? Mr. Roeshink helplessly said, "I was wondering if you could help me with my first emergency? One of the girls brought her baby tooth to show everyone and then she dropped it on the floor." I began to crawl on the floor and search carefully for this tooth. I remember how important my first baby tooth was to me. After five minutes of crawling on the floor, I finally found the tooth, it was very small. Upon completion of this emergency task, Mr. Roeshink thanked me and showed me around his room.

Rita Inman

The past few visits to my class I have been put to work. Thursday made cut outs for a fall wreath, which I noticed the students had made today. Today, I worked on laminating things and cutting them out. Some were decorations for the classroom and others were handouts for a game. I have learned that there is a lot of extra work involved in teaching, so I hope that when I do teach I have an aid or volunteer.

Jennifer Lung

October 9, 2007
8am to 12:30pm

I was once again in the first grade classroom. This time I was assigned to help in the reading center. It was amazing how different all the students were. One girl knew almost every word in the books while the others hardly knew any words. The teacher later told me the girl who was in my reading group was the most advanced in the class. As a whole, the students were unusually well behaved, and I was appreciative. The mother of one of the students who was having trouble in school came in to observe him and the teacher. Her presence also helped the students to be on their best behavior. I am curious if something happened between the students and the teacher before I entered the room because of the way the room felt throughout the morning. Nonetheless, I am almost always impressed by how intelligent the students are. Their ability to learn and explore new information is huge. When I was in elementary school, I do not remember being so far along. I find it curious how people always say that students are getting worse and worse yet I can only see them as the same but more bright. Each child truly is special and I believe every child can learn when given the proper circumstances. I am interested in continuing my hours to learn more about not only these children, but different children.

SERVICE LEARNING - KC KNUDSEN

I finished my service learning hours, Monday, October 8, 2007. I attended X School five consecutive Mondays for three hours at a time. Over the course of my service learning experience, teachers at X School asked me to help them set up their classroom for the next lesson(s), to provide extra help to students that didn't understand the subject area being addressed, to help students find resource materials, and several other tasks. The whole experience felt very natural to me. I don't know how to explain it. I just fell right in with the teachers and took their cues as to what I should do. I hope it is that comfortable at the school where I get hired. Throughout my service learning, I noticed that the population of the school wasn't very diverse. Most students that attend X School were Caucasian. Mixed within that population were a couple, and I truly mean a couple, of African American students. I thought this was very odd. I was informed later that X School is a private institution and that this difference in population is normal. Once, after the students went to lunch, I was able to speak with my mentor teacher. I asked the teacher about lesson plans and if they (and us eventually) were really accountable and actually record their lesson plans for the day. The teacher told me that they are accountable for everything that goes on in the classroom and that they are required to record their lesson plans and post them on the school's website. My service learning experience was just that, an experience. I feel that it has prepared me for my first internship by giving me a taste of what it is like to be in a working school today.

Brandy Barnett

Service date and time: October 12, 2007 8:00a.m-10:00a.m.
Fridays just must be test day, nationwide, and not specific to generation. I remember taking tests every Friday in school. Now I am witnessing the same pattern is still used in this new generation, even at the first grade level. Friday morning, as soon as the bell rings, a spelling test, grammar test, and reading comprehension test are given. No wonder the kids look forward to the weekend. It’s a wonder how they look forward to Friday. I guess Friday would be the best day to administer a test, if you were going to do so. It gives the assumption that you covered the material all week. It alleviates the fear that the children will not do as well if the test was given on Monday since they may forget it all over the weekend. If such a fear exists, are the children really learning? Has the teacher spent enough quality time going over the concept? Does the student understand the rationale behind learning the concept? I dare say that the latter question is not given very frequently in the classroom. If the child is not “shown”, notice I did not say “told”, the reason behind the learning, why would they want to learn? Being a good student is not a character trait every child holds as a personal value. I see this first hand in my first grade service learning classroom. There is a little girl in the class who shows no interest in learning. She will probably be held back. She is very smart when she applies herself. Her willingness to learn to directly connected to her emotions at the moment. She has a hard home life. Both of her parents are in jail. She lived with her grandmother and TEN other children until her grandmother just recently went to jail. Now she lives with her aunt. Yes, I did say she is a first grader. That is a rough path to walk through in life already at such a young age. She has stolen things from other children two times and always fails the majority of her tests, assignments. It is truly associated with her emotions at the time. If she is getting along with the teacher she does fairly well. If the teacher does something it upset her or makes her mad, she refuses to even try. If she doesn’t know the answer to the first problem, she absent mindedly fills in the blanks to all of the other problems. In her mind, her lack of attempt to do her work hurts the teacher. She doesn’t realize how much she is hurting herself. I did a read aloud today to the class for an AR test that I administered individually afterward. I was so excited that she only missed one out of five questions. That was an 80%. (She had failed all of the other tests that morning.)

Wynee Wang (J.A.)

Date: October 1, 2007
Time: 8:30AM - 2:45PM
Where: Minneola Elementary
Grade Level: 2nd Grade
Purpose: Junior Achievement


Since this will be my first time teaching in a real, live classroom, I prepared for this day for weeks! I was so nervous that I felt nauseas and slept for only two hours the night before this day. Before driving an hour to Minneola, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts and bought three different flavors of Munchkins, I thought it was a good idea since I will be having the kids make pretend donuts today. Since I like to incorporate plenty of details, I will break down my experience into specific time periods.



8:45AM - 9:30AM (Different Jobs)

As soon as I arrived in the classroom, all of the children yelled "YAY! You're FINALLY here!" and "Wow! Do we get donuts?" "Later." I replied. My nervousness eased down a little, well, I thought to myself, at least they like me. Before I began to put up the "How does a community work?" poster and the "Junior Achievement" banner, I took out my own pre-made name tag which looks like this (the only difference is that the actual name tag was decorated by hand).















"Good morning, everyone! I have met you all about a week ago. I would like to introduce myself first. My name is Wynee Wang, but you could address me as Ms. Wynee. I am a volunteer for a program called Junior Achievement. A volunteer is a person who chooses to help another person or business, but receives no pay. Now, the purpose of our program today is to help you all understand what a community is and how does it work. I am also a college student at UCF, UCF stands for University of Central Florida. I am currently studying to become a teacher! So, before we get started, I will pass out your name tags (which I prepared weeks before), and you will decorate them with crayons or markers, your choice. Here, I'll show you my name tag." So I put my own decorated name tag on display and passed out all 21 students' name tags. "While you are working on this, I am going to set up for our activities." I began to put up the colorful "How Does a Community Work?" poster that Junior Achievement had provided. When I was finished, I noticed that the classroom was set up this way: (Please click to enlarge)

After everyone was done coloring and drawing, I asked the students to look at the colorful and big poster in front of the classroom. "What types of jobs do you see on this poster?" I asked the students. Immediately, all of their hands went up, waving furiously in the air. I picked on ten students and wrote down their answers on the board:

Jobs in a community:

• Policeman
• Teacher
• Taxi Driver
• Chef
• The "Hot Dog Guy"
• The lady that sells flowers
• Mayor
• The "Meat Man" (butcher)
• Librarian
• Fireman

I then asked the students "Why do we need these types of jobs in our community?" Once again, all of their hands shot up in the air and I received answers like, "because we need somebody to protect us when our house catches on fire", "because we need to borrow books from the library", "because we need someone to cook for us" and much more. One answer that really caught my attention was by Emily M., "If we were sleeping in our bed during night time, and someone comes in and wants to shoot us in the head, then we need the police to come and save us so that we wouldn't be dead."

Ten minutes later, everyone was still raising their hands because they want to continue expanding my question about why we need different types of jobs in our community. Even though I loved the fact that the students are all actively participating on this one topic, time is short, so I had to move on to the next question. "Do you know someone who does any type of work that we've just talked about?" In this classroom, most of the students have families who are policemen or retired firemen.

"I would like for all of you to tell me what you would like to be when you grow up", I was eager to hear what the students would say, "Let's start with you, Asdrubal. Now, remember, if you do not know what you would like to be yet, don't worry. You still have plenty of time to figure that out!" Mostly everyone wanted to be a teacher or a police officer. I remember Joseph wants to continue his family business and work at Lucky Martin's (I have no idea what that is). I also remember Devon (an ESE student) wants to work at Burger King. Now, to my audience, do you still remember Dylan? He is a student that, according to the teacher, is a mental and uncontrollable problem child. He excitedly told me that he wants to become a preacher when he grows up. I was very excited to hear that. When it was Lewis's turn, he stayed quiet. I asked him if he wants to provide an answer, he shook his head. I smiled and said, "That's okay, you don't have to answer." I wanted all the students to feel that I am not pressuring them to do anything for me.

I ended my first activity by passing out the "How does a Community Work?" worksheets for all students and I also gave them business stickers for them to match on their worksheets. They really seemed to enjoy this activity.

Meanwhile, as I was preparing for our next activity, Dylan came to me, rubbing his chest, sadly said to me, "Ms. Wynee, this part hurts." I was about to ask him how much does it hurt when Ms. (teacher) yelled, "Dylan! What are you doing out of your seat? You know you're supposed to stay in your seat! Now go back to your desk and sit down!" I did not think this was a great way to speak to a child. We, as adults and educators need to show respect to children in order to gain respect from them.

9:30AM - 10:15AM (Production)

"Before we get started on our second activity, I would like for everyone to stand up." All the children cheered and jumped up from their seats. I could tell they were extremely eager to stand up. From what I infer so far, the teacher keeps the children in their seats all day long. Personally, I wouldn't want to sit in the same chair for hours and hours. "Okay, now everyone wiggle your fingers. . . Stretch your arms out. . . Shake your body, shake it all out." I had everyone shaking like crazy. "Ok, take your seats." All the children seemed refreshed and ready to begin the new activity.

"Who likes donuts?" This question seemed to set the whole class on fire because everyone was excited and jumping out of their seats with their hands raised. "Has anyone ever made donuts before?" I asked out of curiousity. Amy raised her hand, so I asked her to share her donut making experience. "My cousin works at a donut store and one time I helped her make donuts. We used eggs and milk and other things." I thanked Amy for her generousity to share that experience with us and asked with a grin, "What if I tell you that we will be making pretend donuts today?" Well, you probably guessed what happened next. Yes, you've got it, everyone's face lit up with excitement. I'm glad my anticipatory set worked like magic.

First, I showed everyone how to make a pretend donut. I showed everyone the donut sheets and the three ingredient sticker sheets, which contained flour, milk and eggs. "We will first take a donut sheet, turn it around and MIX the ingredient by putting one flour sticker, one milk sticker and one egg sticker on the back of the donut sheet. Then we will SHAPE the donut by popping the round donut out from the sheet. After that process, we will FLAVOR the donuts by coloring them with any colored crayon. But remember, your donut has to be neat in order to pass the inspection by the inspector."

I previously made some defect "donuts" so I can let students see what types of donuts are unacceptable. Giving visual examples will give students an understanding of what their teacher expects from them and will definitely help visual learners. I explained that a defect is when something is not made correctly and showed every student my examples. I made a donut that lacked ingredients, a donut that was colored out of the lines, a donut that hadn't been popped out from the sheet and an acceptable donut. All of the students were able to recognize quickly why a donut is either acceptable or unacceptable.

"Now, I will break you into 4 teams, each team will go one by one because it is hard for me to help you if you are all having trouble making donuts at the same time. We will look at two different types of productions, one is unit production, which one person makes something by himself. The other type is called assembly-line production, which several workers make something, each doing a special part. There will be 2 teams for unit production and 2 teams for assembly-line production. At the end of this activity, we will see which type of production is better." I also made sure to write the two key terms on the board.

As I was planning this activity, I took part of the teacher's advice when I spoke with her during the pre-planning session. She informed me, "I wouldn't break them into groups because they haven't really worked in groups this semester, so I would pick out a few volunteers to perform the task and have the others watch." Since I wanted everyone to participate, I decided to break the class into teams and let each team participate one after another. This is a really bad idea, I'd forgotten that children around this age are impatient and have a short attention span. But we all learn from our mistakes, so let me share mine. These are my four teams:

TEAM 1 - Unit Production

• Emily B.
• Steven
• Grace
• Ben
• Allie

Inspector: LaVonne

TEAM 2 - Unit Production

• Humphrey
• Brianna
• Amy
• Asdrubal
• Kevin

Inspector: Joseph

TEAM 3 - Assembly-line Production

• Joseph - put flour sticker behind donut, pass to Franklin
• Franklin - put milk sticker behind donut, pass to Gabriela
• Gabriela - put egg sticker behind donut, pass to Courtney
• Courtney - pop donut out from the sheet, pass to Christian
• Christian - flavor donut by coloring it neatly but as quick as possible

Inspector: Humphrey

TEAM 4 - Assembly-line Production

• Emily M. - put flour sticker behind donut, pass to Dylan
• Dylan - put milk sticker behind donut, pass to Devon
• Devon - put egg sticker behind donut, pass to LaVonne
• LaVonne - pop donut out from the sheet, pass to Lewis
• Lewis - flavor donut by coloring it neatly but as quick as possible

Inspector: Cameron (Told me that she'd rather be my inspector than to make donuts)

Before I passed out the materials to Team 1, I explained the directions again. I informed the team that their mission is to make as many donuts as possible within 2 minutes, BY THEMSELVES, with the least amount of defects as possible. Christian from Team 2 began to cry, "I want to make donuts, too." Many other students groaned and started to be upset as well. "Don't worry, you are all going to have a chance to make donuts, ok? Right now, Team 1 goes first, you will have to wait for your team's turn." I passed out some materials to each student at TEAM 1, each child received: a crayon, 10 donut sheets, 1 flour sticker sheet (contains 20 stickers), 1 egg sticker sheet (contains 20 stickers) and 1 milk sticker sheet (contains 20 stickers). I briefly went over the directions once more before I said, "Ready, set, go!" and pressed the start button on my stopwatch.

As soon as I looked up, I saw Christian taking Allie's materials and trying to make donuts. "Christian, you will get your turn, just wait patiently. Now please give Allie back her materials." As Team 1 worked on their donuts, all of the other students sighed and whined. They seemed really bored. Once 2 minutes were up, I asked the inspector to count the total donuts their team made (incomplete donuts count), count the defects, and subtract the defects from the total donuts to get acceptable donuts. I recorded the results on the board. I repeated these steps with the other three teams. The only difference is that for teams 3 and 4, I walked through each child's role with them for the assembly-line production and performed a demonstration. Dylan was in Team 4, I asked him to take Cameron's seat and be the milk sticker person, he asked if he could be the colorer. I was just about to answer when Ms. (teacher) said, "Dylan, you don't get a choice, you either be the sticker person or you can not participate at all." So Dylan sat down quietly and took the role of the milk sticker person.

Now, this is where the lesson goes wrong. Being in Team 1 was a lot of pressure, because the team is going first. After their two minutes were up, Steven, an ESL student, began sobbing quietly. When I asked him what was wrong, he replied in a broken voice, " . . .(sniff) be..because my . . .my donuts are not . . .good (sniff) enough." I whispered back, "Steven, there is no need to cry. We are just all having fun together, right? So please don't cry over a donut and I don't care about those donuts, ok?" "Okay." Steven answered. Right when I finished, Courtney said, "Yea, Steven, don't cry. We don't care about the donuts!" Then she shrugged her shoulders and smiled at Steven. Obviously she was listening to me. After this problem, whoever was putting on the stickers in Team 3, did not put them on neatly behind the donut, resulting the stickers to stick out from behind the donut. So most of their donuts were defects. (You probably could guess how they reacted about that) And in Team 4, whoever that was coloring took a very long time. Most of their donuts were also defects. This was the end result:

As I looked up at my results, I realized that the chart basically defeated my purpose to teach this lesson. My goal was to get children to realize that it is better to work together as a team than to work by oneself. I became very frustrated because I really could not think of anything to say. So I looked at Ms. (teacher), she was doing some paperwork. I walked over to her and whispered, "Ms. (teacher), the chart I have on the board defeats the purpose of this whole lesson, assembly-line production results SHOULD have came out better than the unit productions." She looked at the teams and replied back, "Well, I guess it just depends on who you have in a team." That was all she said to me. That's it? You're not going to help me out? I screamed in my head. I wanted to quit right then and there. I walked back to the front and said, "Ok, everyone, my purpose for this lesson was to get you all to understand that working together as a team is better than working alone. But as you can see on this chart, the results said otherwise and this really just defeated my whole purpose of teaching this lesson." After I said this, then Ms. (teacher) stood up from her seat and began explaining to her students that if everyone in a team is on the same level, then the assembly-line production would've gone better. So, there you go, lesson failed.

10:15AM - 10:30AM (Snack Time)

Finally, a snack break. I walked around and gave each child munchkins that I bought earlier in the morning. Everyone thanked me as they ate their donuts. I was a little frustrated during snack time, because when one child asks, "Can we have seconds?", the next child will ask the same question, then the next child, and so on and so forth. It was very tiring to answer "yes, you may" ten times in a row.

10:30AM - 11:15AM (Role of Government)

After snack time, I asked the children to stand up and stretch again. I briefly went over our previous activities and I asked them, "How do you think the workers at the donut shops get paid? Where does the money come from?" Everybody answered that the money comes from the people who buy donuts and the workers' boss pays the workers. Smart cookies. I told them that a regular worker sells something and gets paid with a portion of that money. To encourage thinking I asked, "Who do you think pays Ms. (teacher)?" Courtney answered, "Mrs. Reeds (Assistant Principle)", Gabriela answered, "Mrs. Watts (Principle)", and Ben answered, "The mayor". I asked if Ms. (teacher) sells anything, everyone said no. "Do you come to school everyday and say, 'here, Ms. (teacher), here's 100 dollars for you to teach me'?" Ms. (teacher) interrupted at this point and said out loud, "They SHOULD be paying me." Everyone laughed and I continued to explain, "Ms. (teacher) isn't selling anything, right?" Everyone nodded, "she gets paid by the government. The government is a group of people who manages our city and state. Now where do you think the government gets the money to pay teachers like Ms. (teacher)?" I don't know how Dylan knew the answer, but he answered "taxes." "Good job, Dylan. Yes, everyone, the government gets the money to pay goverment workers by collecting taxes. Taxes are a portion of money that everyone has to pay so we can all benefit from services. Now please look at the poster in front, can anyone spot any other governement workers? Remember, government workers provide services, they don't sell anything." Mostly everyone raised their hands, I put the answers that the students said on the board and I went over them one by one by asking them questions like, "Somebody said a coffee shop worker is a type of government worker, does everyone agree with that? And please tell me why you agree or disagree". Then I would get responses like, "No, because the coffee shop worker is selling something."

After I listed all 8 government workers from the poster onto the board, I told the students that I need 8 volunteers to play the roles of the governement workers. Literally everybody wanted to come to the front of the room, the students that were not chosen seemed very upset. I assigned each of the students that were in front with me a badge. Each badge labeled a government worker title, for example, fireman, teacher, librarian, soldier, tax collector, etc... I told the rest of the students that were sitting down that they are all workers for the Sweet O'Donuts Shop and today is pay day! " Everybody cheered with so much excitement that Ms. (teacher) raised her voice and told everyone to be quiet. "Okay, children, I am the owner of Sweet O'Donuts and I'm going to pay you each $5 today." So I walked around the room and gave $5 (Junior Achievement Money) to each child. The government workers in the front of the room were really antsy because they want to get paid as well. "My donut shop workers, you should all have $5. Now it's time to pay your taxes. The tax collector will come around and collect $2 worth of taxes, and he will then give all of your tax money to the government, which is Ms. (teacher). So everybody give Joseph $2 when he comes around." Joseph, proudly to be the tax collector, collected $2 from everyone and gave the money to Ms. teacher. "Now, I am going to play the role of the government because Ms. (teacher) is very busy, so I am going to pay my government workers because today is their pay day, too." I gave each government worker $5, also. I then asked everyone if they think that government workers should pay taxes, too. Most of the response was "yes". When I asked why, Emily B. answered, "because you said everyone has to pay taxes." I agreed with her and added, "yes, everyone, including the government workers have to pay taxes so we can all benefit from the same services." Once again, I signaled my tax collector to collect the taxes and bring them to me. The children were very excited to hear that they could take their $3 home.

I asked the government workers to take their seats. Then I ended this activity by passing out government worker stickers for everybody so they could match them on their worksheets. During this time, Gabriela came up to me with her right hand on her tummy, "Ms. Wynee, I don't feel good." "Do you want to go see the nurse?" I asked. Before Gabriela could even answer, Ms. (teacher) came and ordered Gabriela to go back to her seat and stop whining. "They always do that", the teacher said to me, "when someone new comes in the classroom, they all pretend to get sick." But I was very concerned about Gabriela. To me, she really looked like she didn't feel good. But I am not her teacher, Ms. (teacher) is.

11:15Am - 12:00PM (Specials)

As the children left the classroom to go to P.E., they all waved at me and told me that they will see me when they get back. During this time, Mrs. (assistant) came in and began to gossip with Ms. (teacher) once again. I took this time to set up for the fourth activity. After I had set up, I asked Ms. (teacher) if she could read a book like she normally does from 12PM to 12:20PM before the children go to lunch, because I would like to take a break. I walked around the room to pick up the trash that was on the floor from the donut activity, and I decided to look at each child's decorated name tag. Emily B.'s name tag caught my attention. On the back of her name tag, she drew a picture of her and I holding hands, smiling under the sun. What a sweetheart.
Dylan's name tag was very interesting too, it had dogs running on the grass, the sky was gray, and there were black crosses all over the place. It looks like this:

Now, this was very interesting to me because I cannot interpret what it means. Hopefully somebody can help me with it.

After I looked at all of the name tags, I wanted to speak with Ms. (teacher) about my performance and see if she could give me any feedback. All she told me was, "You're doing fine." Then she went back to gosipping with Mrs. (assistant). That was when I finally realized that the teacher does not like me.

12:00PM - 12:20PM (Read Aloud)

A few minutes after Ms. (teacher) left and picked the children up, I heard her yelling. She was furious at the children because they were not behaving properly. I believe that there are plenty of other ways to discipline children besides yelling. For the short 20 minutes, the teacher read a chapter book to the students. The book was about a "hobo" (homeless person).

12:20PM - 12:50 (Lunch)

As we were walking to lunch, Devon held my hand (he was the boy that asked me to eat lunch with him last time I visited. Emily B. asked me to sit next to her, then Brianna said I should sit next to her, the next thing you know, everybody wanted me to sit next to him or her. I informed everyone that it does not matter where I sit because we'll all be sitting together on the same table so there is no need to fight. After I received my lunch, I sat down at an open spot at the designated class table, I sat beside Cameron and LaVonn, with Grace, Courtney and Brianna sitting exactly across from me. I felt horrible when Emily B. began to cry just because I didn't sit next to her. I didn't know what to do, all I could do is tell her that we could still talk to each other from where we are both sitting.

Lunch seemed very long to me. I couldn't finish my sandwich just because I had to try and answer 21 different questions and listen to 21 different stories one after another. I was very frustrated about this situation as well.

I noticed that Gabriela had her head on the table and was not eating at all. I asked her if she was still feeling sick, and she said, "yes". I told her, "When Ms. (teacher) comes back to pick us up, we'll tell her that you feel sick so you can go see the nurse, ok? Now try and eat something." So she did.

12:50PM - 1:15PM (Recess)

The teacher lined up the students and walked them to the playground. Dylan got out of line for a few seconds, so the teacher ordered him to get back in line. After this happened, Ms. (teacher) turned to me and said, "Dylan is such a horrible name! I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever name my kid Dylan. Trust me, I know how horrible it is." These words extremely shocked me. Once again, she spoke negatively about Dylan in front of his classmates.

As we went to the playground for recess, everybody grabbed me and dragged me so I could play with them. Ms. (teacher) had to come and yell, "That's enough! She is not playing with you! Now go play or else we'll go back to our room and read! You choose!"

As I sat with Ms. (teacher) on the picnic table by the playground, I explained to Ms. (teacher) about Gabriela's situation, "She barely ate anything at all". The teacher shrugged off my words, "Oh, like I said, don't worry, the children will do that and they will try to get attention." Just as we were speaking about this, Gabriela came to Ms. (teacher), clutching her tummy, "I want to puke", she said. The teacher looked her Gabriela and ordered, "Go play!" Doesn't the teacher get the hint that maybe this girl is really sick and really wants to puke?

1:15PM - 2:00PM

When we came back to the room, I asked the students what choices or decisions they made today. I explained that a decision is to make a choice or to be able to pick from more than one.Humphrey answered, "I made a decision to make donuts." Amy said that her decision was that, "to be here with Ms. Wynee". Courtney answered, "My decision is that teachers can be nice, too." After praising everyone for their answers, I provided more examples, "What about lunch? I saw some of you making a decision to eat yogurt, some of you chose mac & cheese, and some of you chose to eat a sandwich. When you make a choice, you are making a decision. We make decisions every single day, so it is important to pay attention to this activity."

I asked the students to pretend that they live in the community shown on the poster. I encouraged the students to look at the poster and find an empty store. After they had found the empty store, I explained, "In our community, there are three people that want to be mayor. Each person running for mayor wants to bring a different business to the community, which would fill the empty store." I pointed to the Decision Tree poster and explained that we have to follow the steps and decide on what is the decision to be made, what are the choices, and list the positives and negatives for each choice. This is how our Decision Tree came out to be. (I will type the students' responses in red. Please click to enlarge.)

After we listed the positives and negatives of each choice. I passed out ballots to each student and ask them to vote for a mayor. I reminded them that they can only choose 1 mayor, that no answer is right or wrong, and that they have to make their choice by what they think is best for the community.

Our winning mayor was . . .Mayor 1 that wanted a toy store! Apparantly, a lot of the children chose the toy store because they felt that the toy store would have the least violence out of the three. I reminded them that the way they made decisions today will help them think about their choices and make better decisions. I ended this activity by passing out "I Voted!" stickers.

2:00PM - 2:45PM (Money Moves)

It has been a very long day for me and I could not wait to get the last activity over with. Before we began, I asked the children to stand up and stretch out again. I first explained what a bank and money is. Next, I passed out the Money Moves worksheet to everybody. Then I asked for 8 volunteers to go up to the front and stand in an oval shape. Since this was the last volunteering opportunity, many students were upset that I didn't choose them. I gave a quarter to Grace told her she was first. I explained to them that they have to demonstrate the circular flow of money by passing the quarter in unison with the lyrics of the tape that I will be playing.

Shortly after I pressed the play button, a catchy rap song about the cycle of a quarter began. The 8 children in the front began to pass the quarter everytime it moves in the lyrics of the song, while they were dancing and jumping around. The rest of the children were very disappointed to see their classmates dancing in the front and having a great time while they were sitting down in their boring seats. After the song finished, I sent the children in front back to their seats and explained that I will play the song once more, and as everyone listen to the lyrics this time, they should use their pencils to trace the quarter's path through the community.
This was the end of the last activity. Each child received their Certificate of Achievement which Junior Achievement provided. I passed out some postcards with some motivational stickers for students to take home, I encouraged them to share their experience today with their families. "I really enjoyed being here with you all today. As a matter of fact, since we have 15 minutes left, let's play a game of 'Simon Says', and I have some coloring books for prizes." The excitement in the room was unexplainable.

During our game, Gabriela threw up. If the teacher showed more concern for this child earlier when the child constantly reminded us that she did not feel good, then this would not have happened. These children all have such great listening skills, that I had to finish the game with 4 winners. I gave the 4 children coloring books. Courtney told me that she didn't like her coloring book, then Allie came to me also and said the same thing. I was suggesting to them that maybe they should switch when Ms. (teacher) lectured them, "You either take the coloring book or you don't take it. She specifically went out and bought them for you. You should just take your coloring books, say 'thank you', turn around and sit down!"

As I was about to leave, everyone came and hugged me. The first one that came to me was Dylan. He thanked me and asked me if I was coming back the next day. I responded, "No, not tomorrow, but I will come back sometime during this year, ok?" Now that was a promise.

Reflection

I realized today that the way you treat a child will affect the way he/she participate and socialize in the classroom. For example, Ms. (teacher) was always putting Dylan down, yelling at him, and always criticizing about him in front of his peers. His classmates know that the teacher doesn't like Dylan, so they give Dylan a hard time also because nobody wants to be against their teacher. The isolation, the embarrassment and the negative attitudes has molded this child into a very anti-social and disruptive student for Ms. (teacher), but not for me. Dylan actively participated in all of my activites, he listened carefully to directions and he is a very bright child. I believe teachers should treat all children equally, give them the same attention and not discriminate against anybody. Teachers should not expect students to give them respect, when they don't even respect the students.

An effective teacher also listens to his/her students. If my students tell me that they feel sick, I will immediately send them to the nurse instead of accusing them of lying. I also believe that there are other ways to keep children quiet instead of yelling at them. When the children talked while I was talking, I stopped what I was doing and just looked at them silently. They immediately stopped talking and gave me their full attention again.

This was a great experience for me because it allowed me to experience how it feels to teach a whole day (It was very tiring), it allowed me to learn from the teacher's negativity, it reminded me how much I love kids and gave me more reasons why I should become a teacher so I could lead our youths into successful lives.

Jennifer Lung

October 8, 2007
12:30 to 2 pm

Another day of service learning in the forth grade classroom. I actually enjoyed myself this time. The students were working on a writing assignment when I entered the room and I was asked to help the children that were having trouble. Many of the students did not understand the instructions and could not figure out how to build a proper paragraph. I started with a girl who was bright but could not transfer her thoughts effectively to paper. This student is often disruptive for the teacher but for some reason shows me a level of respect. We worked together for the majority of my time there. I think she really just needed some personal attention. Other student had great beginnings to their papers but could not stay focused. It was almost impossible for a child to complete an assignment in the environment that was established. I did notice two groups of students acting out. The gifted and the below average would not behave. This is probably because they are not receiving enough personal attention or they are not being challenged. Interesting were the dynamics in the room during the writing block. My heart goes out to these children and I only wish I could be there more often for them.

Rita Inman

9/18/07 I went to my service learning today, and instead of working with my usual two students I did a read aloud to the whole class. The teacher was doing dibbles in the back of the class calling students one by one. While I was reading the story there where so many distractions, between students getting up and down and students asking questions about everything but the book.
9/25/07 Today in my service learning I was working with *Sam and *Dave. Dave made a comment about FCAT and how they had to take it this year. Sam freaked out, he was so upset. All he kept saying was how he can’t take the FCAT this, and he can’t pass it. I was trying to make him feel better, but he put his head on the table and would not talk to me. I don’t know what he has been told about FCAT, but someone has scared this poor child about taking the test.
10/2/07 Today, I helped had to read a math test to 3 students. The test gave number like 129 and the students had to round each number. I was only supposed to read the number to the children, but they looked at me waiting for me to give them the answer. It was so hard not to be able to help them.

Amy Alderman

On Friday I did my third service learning. I have to say I was glad to go back. I did my read aloud, Skippyjon Jones. The kids loved it, the teacher loved it and I enjoyed doing it. The class also had the local firefighters come to the school for fire prevention. The kids loved it and suprisingly were great. These are the "low end" kids that the other teachers always dread. I think it is more of what you make of them, not always how it really is. The day went well and I'll be back next Friday.

Amy Alderman

Service Learning Reflection for Amy Schoenlaub
7 Hrs.

September 28, 2007

Morning work for this first grade class consists of a math problem, a sentence to be written in their journal and a worksheet if time allows. Students place their homework and parent/teacher communication folders in a designated basket, hang up their backpacks and get started on their morning work. The noise level is surprisingly low. The teacher takes attendance on the computer and the announcements begin. The announcements are given over the television by the principal and selected students. I noticed that the children continued doing their morning work and didn’t pay much attention to the announcements. After announcements the students gather on the carpet for calendar time. The students all had things they wanted to share about something that happened to them, etc. After calendar time each of the first grade teachers starts their reading block.
During reading block all of the first graders are grouped by skill level and split up into different classrooms; so there were many new faces coming in. The teacher I am working with takes the intermediate class. They start the reading block with a really cute song and dance sort of thing called, “I’m Ready to Read.” They reviewed some of the concepts they had learned that week and put up “walls” around their desktop (cardboard), to prepare for the reading and spelling test they were about to have. She allowed me to give them the spelling test and I noticed that some of the ESOL students in the class needed more time for their words. I confirmed that the teacher would allow them extra time at the end. At the end I repeated the words to these students. I found out that this teacher has 4 ESOL students.
After the test the students start literacy centers. The centers covered the “Fab 5” mentioned in RED 3012. She doesn’t do guided reading groups on Fridays as her own center but told me she would do one the following Friday so I could see it in action. A student comes in late during center time and the teacher asks if I would like to give him the reading and spelling test. After carefully looking over the reading test I really think it is a tricky assessment. It was a reading/comprehension test taken from the basal reading program. There were questions that, in my opinion, weren’t trying to determine what a child knew. Instead, it just seemed some of these questions were trying to trick them. Some of the fill in the blank questions look less like comprehension questions and more like a CLOZE activity. The student I was working with did very well on both tests and was very sweet. I went to tell the teacher how well he had done and she informed me that just last week that same little boy got in serious trouble. She said he threatened to bring a knife to school and cut another student. Days later the administration informed her that this boy’s father had been arrested for domestic violence. I think it is so important to always understand that children don’t just come up with these sorts of behaviors on their own.

October 5, 2007

Today I worked in the same classroom as last week and a similar routine took place. During the reading block, however, I was able to see the teacher run her own guided reading group center. Groups of three students would come in and read a story with the teacher, to each other, and then do an activity based on the book. The teacher informed me that all of the supplies she is using for her guided reading activities are provided by Literacy First. I am pretty sure she said that her school uses Title I money to pay for this program. Four teachers share these materials and, so far, she has been the only teacher using them.
Today I also found out, from the teacher, that four of the students in this teacher’s class live in a shelter. She also said, “The parents are yet to be located.” I was confused about this but didn’t want to press her for an answer knowing that it would probably sadden me further. She mentioned, also, that she is writing a grant to get money so that her class can make things for these students to have over the holidays (books, puppets, etc.).
I thought it was really interesting that after seven hours of working with these students only one student had his “card moved” to another color for behavior but that this has been the only behavioral problem I have seen thus far. I also noticed that during transitions from one activity to another the teacher ask questions about rules, models behaviors, and explains what will be happening next. I think this really helps them to understand the expectations clearly. I think it is important to review certain rules as often as possible. These students seem to know what is expected of them at all times and do very well with her strategy.

Jennifer Lung

October 3, 2007
8am to 11:30am

A few days ago I completed a second day of service learning. I was in a different classroom this time and it was 1st grade. While I was there, a math lesson was being taught. To watch the students learn and interact with their assignments was incredibly intriguing. I could definitely tell what types of learners were in the class and which students were advanced or behind for their grade level.

The differences in the student's learning styles were huge. Some students immediately caught on to what was being taught. Other's needed repeated examples, some needed pictures drawn, and yet some needed to count on their fingers for something tangible. There was a wide range from auditory to visual to tactile learners.

Not only were there different learning styles but there were also different levels the children were on. To keep the students that finished first busy, the teacher allowed them to color in their workbooks. Some students took the entire allotted time for the assignment and did not have time to color.

One student in particular stood out to me. This student was done with his assignment and coloring before most of the class were finished with doing the math problems. He was obviously gifted. His classmates were asking him simple math questions so they could finish and he was spitting the answers out without even thinking twice. I could clearly see this student was not being challenged due to the way he was acting out. He kept looking for approval and attention from the teacher by interrupting her. The teacher finally asked him to help his classmates complete their work. The students were grouped with gifted, average, and below grade level in a group so they could help each other.

What I saw as far as the wide range of students was shocking. When I become a teacher it will be important for me to consider ALL of my students when creating lesson plans.

Kristin W. (CFCC)

Yesterday I started my J.A. lessons in a first grade classroom. I had been to the class one time before but just to observe and talk to the teacher about what times I would work. When I got to the class at 9:30 am the students were about to start their spelling test for the week. The teacher told me when we met before that she had one student (a girl) that was her problem student. She said that the girl was very smart and wanted to learn but she just could not concentrate long enough to do any work. The teacher had already had the girl tested for gifted and it was found that she had an average IQ. The teacher still thinks that she was just unable to concentrate long enough to determine an accurate IQ. The behavioral specialist determined that the girl is severely ADHD. The teacher has had multiple meetings with the parents, who do not want to use medication, and she has tried to help the parents find other forms of therapy, diets, herbs, exercise etc. But the parents say that the child’s behavior does not bother them. They can just send her outside to play. But this presents a problem to the teacher who cannot do the child's state mandated tests for her.
So, when I got to the class I sat in the back to get my materials ready while they completed their tests. As soon as the tests started M started talking, not to any one, just talking. At first I just acted like I was ignoring it. I noticed that she had written her name on the paper and numbers but she was not writing her words instead she was spelling random words (out loud) that the teacher used in sentences or standing in the back reading the pledge of allegiance or asking me if I would give her the pencil sharpener that was on the desk in front of me. After about two minutes of consistent disruption to the rest of the class. I sat down beside M and tried my best to keep her on task. I told her each word and pointed to where she need to write it and she wrote some of them but most it seemed like a thought crossed her mind in the middle of the word and she would stop and tell me something or ask me something. She was able to spell most of the words that she actually wrote but even one on one I was only able to get her to write half of the words. About three quarters of the way through the test she told me "I can't think about this right now I'll take it home and my mom will help me". I told her that it was a test and she would have to do it in class. I also told her that it looked like she was doing really well so far. Between me and the teacher we convinced her to write the dictated sentence at the end of the test.
M is not your average discipline problem, she is a Caucasian girl that seems very intelligent. I think that in this case she really does have a problem. It is very sad to me that her parents have not been receptive to any form of help that the teacher and various therapists have offered because she is very nice and loveing and seems very intelligent. On top of this I do not think that her behavior is fair to the rest of the class. They must not have one assignment or test without constant interruption. And the teacher cannot work one on one all day with one student and effectively teach the others.
Other than M's interruptions my lesson went really well. The students were excited about the lesson and they were even better behaved than the second grade class that I worked in last year. I expected more problems truthfully. One thing I noticed though is that with the "specials" like reading, PE, and other classes outside of the class room it does not seem like the students have a whole lot of class time. I think that this is positive and negative. It keeps them moving but they have a lot of lost time. Also, the portable's water was not working (not to be fixed until after Christmas) which means no water for water breaks and no bathroom. This to me was terrible. I am pretty sure that it is required that classes with that young of students are required to have a bathroom because it is not entirely safe to let students leave the class to go to the bathroom. Also the first day that I went there the AC was broken so you can imagine how hot it was. Not conducive to learning. The teacher brings a water cooler so that the class can take water breaks but this is not a requirement. I think if my child was in a class all day and only had access to a drink at lunch I would be very upset. On the upside the school is very clean and nicely landscaped I think the main problems are in the portables. Also, I know the opinion about teacher’s lounges but I like the fact that the teachers have a separate place to eat from the Cafeteria or at the very least there are people who work in the cafeteria so the teachers do not have to eat in the cafeteria with the kids (they could go back to the classroom). I think that having a calm lunch would be very important to me. Teaching can be very stressful, and bringing your stress level down is important to being a successful teacher, in my opinion.

EDG 4410 Service Learning - Rachel Gray

Yesterday (October 5, 2007) I did Junior Achievement. I was nervous on what to expect. Several students in my class had expressed bad experiences with the JA volunteering. I had gone through the JA packet to prepare and saw that we were suppose to be coordinating with the teacher prior to the presentation. I made initial contact with my teacher just to introduce myself and get a little information about the class. The teacher informed me that she was not to familiar with JA in a day (as they call it) and that she looked forward to seeing me on Friday. Well you can imagine that I basically took that as brush off, especially since my classmates had not so good experiences. I contacted her two more times to finalize what I needed to do but I did not ask her to do anything.

Friday came and I went to class. The teacher welcomed me and to my surprise was already impressed with the fact that I had contacted her. It turns out that a lot of the teachers hadn't even heard from their JA person and didn't know who was coming. Unfortunately, I found out later that some didn't even show up. So what I thought was initial brush off was actually just her not being use to being contacted. My session went well. We did two activities before they left for specials. The teacher was impressed and asked if I was going to graduate soon because there was a job opening. I was very flattered. The second half of the day went good but not as well. I think because it was a lot of information to do in one day. I would suggest anyone doing JA in a day should plan something to give a boost to the afternoon activities. My class was well behaved under the circumstances.

The teacher initially said the class was good but chatty. She had broken them down into small rows which seemed to help. I noticed that when I stood in the middle of the room I would loose a few to side conversations but if I stood at the front of the room I had their full attention. I did have one student that had attention problems. The teacher cautioned me about her and said that she would assist. Overall, the student stayed with me. She didn't participate as much in the activities but I tried to bring her in when possible. This was a great experience for me. I was there the entire day. I ended my lessons about 1:45 and stayed the rest of the day to observe the class and looked through lesson plans. I also went to recess with them.

I felt overall that the school supported the program. They even provided lunch for us. I did hear one or two teachers say something that could be taken slightly negative but overall everyone was very accomodating. My teacher was excellent. She was so great, I went to Wal-Mart when I left school so I could buy her class a new mechanical pencil sharpener because theirs is about gone.

Here's to (hopefully) many more positive experiences!

EDG4467/ Alia Kasem learning service.

Hello Dr. Murray,
Today is Thursday, Oct. 4 th. 2007. volunteered from 7:45am. until 9:30
At the end of this day I Will be finished with my 15 hours of learning service, but I will continue to volunteer in the same class for another course and for the sake of my son.
As soon I entered the class I went to Mr. Hunt and asked him if I can pull the girl to work with her on the writing assignment and he did agree. We finished where we started and then turned it in. after that we worked on the second one by the topic of a friendly letter. She decided to write it to her grand mother. She wrote about a day where she went with her mom and brother shopping. I loved the girl. She is very sweet and neat. She loves the color pink, therefore, she always wearing something pink and everything she bought was pink. We stopped at the last paragraph because they have to take a math test. Before I left, I remind Mr. Hunt and the girl with the missing paragraph and what she was willing to write in it. I was wondering how Mr. Hunt will grade the students who did not turn not even one of the writing assignment out of the five? Who is responsible for this, is it the parents or the teacher ?
Alia

EDG 4467/ Alia Kasem learning Service

Hello Dr. Murray.
I went to Mr. Hunt class on Oct. 3rd, 2007 forone hour from 1:00 to 2:00
When I enter the class I found Mr. Hunt reviewing the students writing assignments. He gives them one writing assignment every week. My son seems to be interested in the topics and write his with no trouble. Mr. Hunt said that there are some students did not turn in any assignment yet. So he asked me to work with a girl on an assignment about an adventure in space. We started and finished three fourth of the assignment before the bell rang. I promised the girl that I will come tomorrow morning and finish it with her. She seemed to have lots of ideas and has good spelling skills. The only problem she has is that she does not like someone to tell her to rewrite something in another way than her way even if it is wrong. She was happy that I will help her tomorrow. Mr. Hunt told me to work on another assignment and the topic will be friendly letter. I felt that the student is a smart kid and just need little help in the class and a little at home, but neither the teacher nor the parents seem to have time for kids like her.
Alia

Alia Kasem

Hello Dr. Murray,
It was Thursday, September 27, 2007
From 1:00 to 2:00
I visited Mr. Hunt class on Thursday afternoon
I entered the class and found the teacher was reading the students writing assignment. Student were writing about an adventure or an event occured with you. It is very amaizing how young children like third graders did will on describing events could be real and could be make believe. The teacher will read the letter, and the students will decide the grade such as A , or B, or C. The teacher was happy with the results.

This learning service was not active as the previous days. I did not do much other than helping the students in their addresses to send their writing assignment to their family members.

Alia

Jennifer Sonneberger

10/05/07
Today was my 5th time in Mrs. Mullins 3rd grade classroom. The kids seem to be excited when I get there now. She always has me work with 2 or 3 kids, and they were all fighting over me. I seem to always get 2 of the same kids everytime. L is the one who has already repeated a grade, and can barely read. She was really struggling today, with the one boy R filling in words for her she could not figure out. After I was done tutoring the kids, I read them a book. I read Skippyjon Jones to them. They loved it, with one girl actually saying how much the bee looked like a pinata. After that, I went to Mrs. Christopher's kindergarten class. This is my second time there, and the kids are starting to warm up to me. Some of them were calling me over to look at their drawings. They are all so cute, but the bathroom obsession is overwhelming. I thought I wanted to teach Kindergarten, but now, I am not so sure!!!

Gina Harris

10/02/07

Another good day in forth grade. I noticed that the teachers changes the desks around on a regular basis. I also have noticed that some arrangements are better than others. We discussed that in class, but seeing it put in action makes me appreciate the importance of something as mundane as that. The kids were pretty good today during her literature read. They still walk around while she is teaching, but it doesn't seem to bother her much. I find it very distracting. Things got a little crazy as usual when dismissed to reading centers as usual. There must be some way to minimize the craziness. The teacher's aid was testing the kids out in the hallway so I was in charge of the vocab. center. "J" wore a different one of my rings today and did excellent work in the center. They had to pick five vocab. words from the story and define them and draw a picture of the word. He wrote perfect definitions and drew wonderful pictures. All the kids looked up the definitions in the back of the book, but not J. He is amazingly smart. We went to the library at the very end of the day and that went pretty well (noisey trip there, but I know it could have been worse :-)

Wynee G. Wang

Date: Thursday - September 20, 2007
Time: 11:20 AM - 12: 25 PM
School: Minneola Elementary
Grade: Second Grade
Purpose: JA Program Planning Visit


I decided to meet with my Junior Achievement classroom teacher (which her name will be kept anonomously) so I could discuss her students' discipline problems, classroom behaviors and the children's likes/dislikes.

When I arrived to the school, she greeted me with a huge smile and led me to her room. As I entered the room, the children were not there (they were in music class) and there was a teacher's assistant in the room. I told the teacher that the purpose of the Junior Achievement class that I'll be teaching on October 1st would be to teach children about how their community works. I gave the teacher a copy of the volunteer guide/lesson plans. She looked it over with me and gave me suggestions of word banks/charts/graphs.

She also told me the kids are pretty well behaved except one boy named Dylan. She began to say extremely horrible things about him. "He's . . . mental, crazy." She exclaimed, "Sometimes during class, he will just scream out, starts to yell, and run around like crazy. I just let him do what he wants because there is no way to control him. I basically taught the whole class to just ignore him." She then points to a sign that's posted on the podium, it looks like this:















Since I thought that this is definitely not the way to handle this situation, I asked the teacher, "Is this the only way to handle the problem?" "No", She answered, "I personally do not think so, but since his mother thinks that there is nothing wrong with him, she refuses to let us pull him out of the regular class. She really needs to come in here and see how he acts, I mean, he's uncontrollable." O . . . k, I thought to myself, I really did not know what to say. I could not believe that teachers in America today would still have attitudes like this. She then added, "So, we just ignore him, and trust me, I got approval from guidance to do this."

The teacher's assistant joined in the conversation and said, "When Ms. (teacher) posted that sign, she didn't tell me anything cuz' I come in only once a week or so. So one day when I came in after lunch and saw Dylan actin' out, I said,'Dylan! What are you doin'?' Then Ms. (teacher) stopped teaching and said, 'Mrs. (assistant), we just ignore him now!'" Then Ms. (teacher) and Mrs. (assistant) began laughing and laughing until they both almost fell over. I really did not know what was so funny.

It was 2 minutes until noon, and Ms. (teacher) said, "Well, the kids are coming back from music class in 2 minutes, do you want to meet them?" I responded, "Sure!" "All right, let's go and pick them up." I began to follow Ms. (teacher) out the door, Mrs. (assistant) then shouted, "I bet ya that boy Dylan's gonna come up to ya and yell out, 'WHO ARE YOU?'" She then began laughing again. I shook my head quietly and continued to follow Ms. (teacher).

We went in the music classroom, the children all looked at me with amazement. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and I smiled and waved at all of the children. "Ok, line up in the hall way", Ms. (teacher) ordered. One by one the children walked by me and out the door of the music classroom, and one by one they smiled at me and said "hello" or "hi'". I walked out the room with the last remaining boy. He looked at me and asked softly,"Who are you?" "Hi, I'm Wynee! Who are you?" I said as I reached out my hand. "I'm Dylan. Nice to meet you." My eyes opened wide as he shook my hand. "Dylan, nice to meet you, too."

We then all walked back to the classroom and they all sat down at their desks. "Ms. (teacher, Dylan got into trouble four times in music class!" Some children shouted out. A girl sitting close by me told me, "Yea, Dylan always gets into trouble!" I could already see that nobody in this class gets along with Dylan. "Ok, class. This is Ms. . . ." she looked at me, "Wynee", I said. "Ms. Wynee is going to come to our class on October 1st to do a program called Junior Achievement with us." I could see some girls clapping their hands silently and smiling at me. "The reason Ms. Wynee came today is to show me the really fun activities that she has planned for us! It involves donuts . . ." "Donuts?" asked a little boy. "Yes, donuts. It also involves money . . . " "Money?" asked another boy. "Yes, money", said the teacher. I added, "Don't forget stickers!" Ms. (teacher) exclaimed, "Yes! And stickers!" All the children smiled at me and stomped their feet impatiently waiting for October 1st to come. "Remember, you all have to be on your best behavior on October 1st because Ms. Wynee is going to school to learn how to become a teacher, so we all have to show her how second grade children should behave." "Yes, Ms. (teacher)", the children responded in unison.

"If you want to stay, you may do so. I usually read them a chapter of a book for 15 minutes before they go to lunch." I asked the children, "Do you want me to stay?" Everyone shouted, "Yea!" So I stayed with the class for another 15 minutes and listened to a story about a little girl named Emily who is the size of a fingernail.

At 12:15, the teacher lined the children up again outside the hallway in alphabetical order and walked them to lunch. I followed them. Dylan came up to me again and asked me curiously, "Are you an adult?" "Yes, Dylan." I answered. "Oh, I thought you were a teenager." I thought it was very cute that he would ask me that. Another boy held my hand and asked me, "Will you sit next to me during lunch?" I wanted to eat lunch with them, but I did not have time since I have to drive an hour and a half to Ormond Beach to work. "I'm so sorry. I wish I could eat lunch with you, but I don't have time because I have to go to work. I will eat lunch with you all when I come next time." The boy seemed sad, but since I promised him I will eat lunch with him next time, he felt better.

After the children got their lunch, they all sat down at their designated table. I noticed that nobody sat next to Dylan. I followed the teacher as she checked that all her students received food. When we came behind Dylan, the teacher pointed at him and told me, "As you can see, nobody even wants to sit next to him because he always makes such a big mess." I was extremely shocked to hear the teacher say this. First of all, Dylan definitely heard her say that. Second of all, a good teacher will never put his/her students down.

During my drive to work, I thought about the series of events that happened. The reason why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place was because the teaching methods used back in my country were very ineffective. For example, teachers will degrade a student in front of everyone. Teachers in China would physically punish a student in front of the class. Basically, getting embarrassed and degraded in front of everyone is normal for Chinese students. Even though Ms. (teacher) did not physically punish Dylan, she definitely embarrassed and degraded him in front of everybody. I thought this would only happen in China, but I was wrong. This Pre-program visit motivated me more to become a better, understanding and loving teacher. I believe that all students should be treated equally and with respect. Educating our nation's youth is a major responsibility for all teachers and future educators. An educator with a negative attitude will create a major impact on a child's life, possibly leading the child to failure with low self-esteem and poor social skills.

Raiza Perdomo

October 1, 2007

Another day in Mrs. Hanks first grade class. Rather than grade papers and put grades in her grade book. I had no tasks at all. I put some papers in their bins to take home. I made sure they had the correct addition problems on their dry erase boards and basically watched them do worksheets. There was some glimpse of hope when I first walked in and saw them studying flash cards of words together around the room. I was matched up with a student who has the biggest behavioral problem in the class. He was an angel and focused the whole time. It was the best part of the day. I helped him look at the letters in the words so to look for the sounds. It seemed like he was doing really well. But, I couldn't even go over them a second time because it was time for lunch. Then another exciting lunch room break with some first grade teachers and a substitute. When we got back to the class I read students questions to an A.R. test and that was it. Not much to reflect on. Except I have learned that when I become a teacher and a volunteer comes into the classroom who is a student trying to learn and absorb as much as possible that I will not give them busy work. I am volunteering my time that I could be working or studying for my classes to be in a classroom to learn and absorb. You would think I am asking for a money donation or some difficult task. I want to work with students. I want to apply what I am learning in all of my classes to something that it real. I just want to make that connection from lecture and textbooks to actual experiences. Instead, all I have is great experience in grading worksheets.

October 2, 2007

I spent an hour at Mr. Paskus's first grade class for junior achievement. I learned that even some of the simplest tasks can get crazy. Perforated sheets of donuts, tons of ingredient stickers and students eager to start touching everything can be a bad mixture. I spent a lot of time just getting everyone ready to work and organizing groups. I felt like I just worked out...that's how exhausted I felt. They did a really great job. They really seemed to like the hair nets that I got from Publix. They were so thrilled to know that they got to take them home. Little things like that seem to be so important to them and you wouldn't even think about it. I was suprised when I put up the groups totals and asked if anyone knew the answer if you added the two. I looked at the teacher to see if maybe he thought they could answer the question and he shook his head like "no chance at all." But, then a student raised his hand an answered the questions correctly. The question was 14 + 8 = 22. Just goes to show you that you should never underestimate your students. What you may think is too difficult for them may not be at all.

Jennifer Sonneberger

September 28th 2007

This is my fourth morning in Mrs. Mullins 3rd grade class. After reading some of the blogs, I guess I am lucky. She does not seem to have any of the major behavior problems I see in the other classes. My Son had her last year, and he rarely got in trouble, though in second grade (and now in 4th grade), he was in trouble all the time. There is a sense of respect in her classroom. She rewards the class as a whole. Based on their behavior as a class, they get happy and sad marble. When they have accumulated enough marbles, they get to have a picnic on the playground, as a class. These seems to work quite well. I also noticed that when she disciplines the students, she does it in the least disruptive way possible.
This morning, she had me go in the closet with two students, and administer the spelling test to them. One student R grilled me the entire time we were in the closet. He had played ball with my son and it was clear he looked up to my son, so he seemed to have respect for me. I have worked with the one student L, everytime I am in the class. She is really struggling to read, and she has already repeated a grade. I do not think she gets any help at home. She told me her parent as divorced, and she only sees her dad on holidays.
When I reentered the classroom, one child T was acting up. Mrs. Mullins immediatly picked up on the fact he had not eaten breakfast, and it was effecting his behavior. I wonder why this is a problem, when this school offers free breakfast to every student, regardless of income.
After the spelling test, it was time for school pictures. The kids were funny, all combing their hair, and practicing their smiles. They were excited to get their pictures taken.
Friday I will be doing a read-aloud with the students.

Amy Alderman

Service learning from 09-28-07
start 9:00 end 12:05

This was my second time being in this classroom. I was remembered this time, and was even scheduled in the planning for the day. When I first came in, the students were preparing for their spelling test. After the spelling test I administered the spelling test one on one with "A" an autistic student. He had done some of the test with the other students, but needed extra attention to help him stay on task. When I was finished with "A", I graded all of the spelling tests, very much suprised with the results. Out of 17 students, 6 passed with a C or higher. Where are the parents? Do parents not help their kids the night before a test? This is considered a low end class. Students have either failed or just barely passed. After the spelling test it was time for reading. Students are grouped into 4 groups, and they branch off to centers. Center 1 is with the teacher, center 2 is with a reading coach working on fluency, center 3 is at computers doing remedial work, and center 4 was with me going to the library (this was their second time going to the library this school year, why?) I do not know what the students would normally do in center 4. The centers had a fifteen minute rotation til all centers were visited at least once. During the center time the teacher stopped class to call "A's" dad (autistic child). The teacher claimed he was disrupting the class, refusing to do what he was asked, and not staying on task. The truth be told he wasn't doing anything but sitting in his chair. Yes, he was not working, but did this warrant a call to his dad, disrupting his day, and stopping the progression of the work with the group that he is in. I personally think not. The bad thing was that she threatened to call dad for 5 min. before she did getting "A" in histerics, but he still did not do his work, because now he is crying. The rest of the day I sat with children one-on-one redoing 2 answers on their previous reading test. The students understood the story, but the question asked them to summarize the story and they retold the story. As the teacher I would have done a mini-lesson on summarizing, because apparently NONE of the students knew what it meant. The second question I had to re-work with them was what makes this story make-believe. All the students I worked with had 1 correct reason why, the teacher wanted 2. This was not part of the instructions and if that's what she wanted, why did she not state that on the test? This was an interesting day for me. I go back on Friday, and am doing my read-aloud. I am looking forward to this. I enjoy the students, I just do not always agree with the classroom management.